Daina Reid

Not only of the best films of 2010 to date, but of the last couple of years, ”I Love You Too” is a silly but sweet romantic comedy about a young man who, due to commitment issues, watches as the love of his life walks out of his life. Clint Morris chats to the film’s director, the lovely Daina Reid.

I really enjoyed the film Daina.

Thank you so much. You wrote the review?

I did. And look, I’m a friend of Pete’s (Helliar) so I was going to support it as much as I can, but I still had to give the film a fair review – and if I didn’t like it, I was going to say that.

That’s great then!

As I said in my review, I can’t think of the last time I saw a genuinely decent Australian-made rom-com?

Yeah… maybe Love and Other Catastrophies? But yeah, that’s what interested me in this project – it wasn’t like most of the romantic-comedies we see, particuarly the ones of the Hollywood variety, and the story was really solid. It’s also not another quirky Aussie comedy where the Aussie accents are exagerrated or it’s played too broad – Americans and the British do that well, but I don’t think we necessarily do. We have a good bullshit meter as an audience. I wanted our characters to feel like real people – people you or I might know.

People have asked me what film ”I Love You Too” most resembles, to get an audience of what they should expect, but I can’t think of one.

Me either, I think Pete’s script is very fresh and original.

It wasn’t an easy shoot, I’m told, mainly due to the tight schedule but also because you came down sick?

Yeah, I was pretty sick there for a while – but I had to keep getting on with the job. Seems everyone on the flick came down with the Swine Flu! But I had a few different things – which my youngest would bring home from day care.

Oh, I know exactly what you’re talking about – I have a two-year old as well, and she loves to bring Daddy something home from day care… usually something snotty and sneezy.

Exactly! And don’t you hate it when you walk into the place to pick your kid up at the end of the day and there’s some youngster there with snot dribbling down his face or coughing up a storm… you just know that you’re going to be getting in on that soon enough!

Now you worked on ”Skithouse”. Is that where you met Pete Helliar?

Yeah. And he had worked with Laura Waters (the producer). We all joined up on it and…

…it was quite some time ago you heard about the script, right?

Yeah, I can’t even tell you how many years ago – it was quite some time ago.

Did it change much over the years?

It was developed more. It didn’t change too much – it was just tweaked.

What was it like working with Roadshow?

Oh they were fantastic – they were just encouraging and supportive.

Roadshow’s Joel [Pearlman] is one of the best but he’s also a huge lover of film – and I think that’s part of the reason why the company has this terrific record when it comes to Aussie movies.

Oh he’s just wonderful… I remember hearing about the movie Invictus, but it wasn’t until Joel told me the movie to me – he essentially pitched it to me; summarized it for me brilliantly – that I was sold.

Now in addition to ”Skithouse”, you also worked for many years on TV sketch show ”Full Frontal” – the same show that introduced us to a then unknown stand-up comic named Eric Bana…

I don’t see Eric much, but I saw him around the time of Troy – he was in the park here with his family, and he was huge! He looked like a trunk! He’s done amazingly well for him. I can’t believe how well he’s done for himself. And there’s also Shaun Micallef, who is doing wonderful things.

And you too! Now you’re working on both TV and film – which do you prefer?

I’d love to do a bit of everything – kinda like Jerry Bruckheimer. Oh please, that sounds so egotistical…

‘Daina Reid : The Next Jerry Bruckheimer’ -that’s the title of this article

This is going to sound so cliche, but Star Wars is the film that made me want to become a filmmaker. I know a lot of filmmakers say that, but it’s true. It’s the film that inspired me to take this road. So I would love to make a science-fiction film – or even a horror film, I love horror movies.